STATEMENT 


OF THE 



WURTZ AMALGAMATION COMPANY 


OF NEW YORK. 


Office, j\o. 57 Bioartway, Boom 21, 


NEW YORK CITY. 


NEW YORK 
1866 . 






























STATEMENT 


OF THE 

/ 

wmrrz amalgamation company 

• • 

OF NEW YORK. 


Office, Ho. 57 Broadway, Room 21 , 



NEW YORK CITY. 



NEW YORK: 
1866 . 






b-'IS5A,l 



OFFICERS 


OF THE 

WURTZ AMALGAMATION COMPANY. 


President, 

JACOB GOEDEL. 


Secretary and Treasurer, 

C. ELTON BUCK. 

Superintendent, 

Prof. HENRY WURTZ. 

T rustees, 

JACOB GOEDEL, 

GEO. F. DUNNING, 

Col. DANIEL W. TELLER, 
ERNST BREDT, 

JOHN ADAMS JOHNSON, 
HENRY WURTZ, 

C. ELTON BUCK. 


Capital Stock, ... - $500,000, 


Divided into 50,000 Shares, at a par value of $10 each. 







C A. R 33. 


The Wurtz Amalgamation Company is now prepared to 
offer to mining companies and individuals engaged in work¬ 
ing mines of the precious metals the use of the process 
described in the following pages. 

The terms and conditions upon which rights to use the 
process are obtainable, may be had on application at the 
office of the Company, No. 57 Broadway, New York. 

JACOB GOEDEL, President. 


C. Elton Buck, Secretary. 



STATEMENT OF THE 


WURTZ AMALGAMATION COMPANY. 


-» » p- - 

The Wurtz Amalgamation Company, duly organized under 
the general law of the State of New York, has become, by pur¬ 
chase from Professor Henry Wurtz, the owner of his patents 
for the application of sodium amalgam to the metallurgical 
treatment of gold and silver ores, as well as his numerous ap¬ 
plications of the same invention to other metallurgical and 
industrial operations. After a long series of elaborate and 
thorough trials of Prof. Wurtz’s process on auriferous ores of 
various kinds, the company is now prepared to offer its use to 
the mining community, convinced that it will effect a largely 
increased yield of precious metal, and that its adoption will put 
an end to the immense losses now experienced by reason of im¬ 
perfect amalgamation. 

It is unnecessary to dwell upon the fact that the present 
status of gold and silver metallurgy is lamentably deficient. 
The experience of California, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, Mon¬ 
tana, Arizona, and all our gold-bearing states and territories, 
proves that by the ordinary methods of amalgamation more 
gold is left in the tailings than is extracted from the ores. In 
Colorado, for example, the average amount of gold extracted 
from the pyritous ores is not much above twenty per cent of 
the entire amount contained therein, while in California, where 
quartz veins containing but few sulphurets abound, and many 
of them are being worked, the yield, though greater, is far less 
than it ought to be. Were a thorough process of amalgamation 
available, not only would the mines now being worked increase 
their yield in a very great ratio, but the success attending the 
operation of these would stimulate the opening of multitudes of 
new mines, and would thus add greatly to the production of 
bullion. 

There is no longer room for doubt that Prof. Wurtz’s process 
of amalgamation will prove the desideratum so long recognized. 
The investigation of its merits by the Company, during a period 
extending more than a year, and the trials which have been 
made on a working scale, have demonstrated its success, and led 


* 



6 


to the most sanguine estimates of its importance. Annexed to 
this statement will be found documentary evidence of this suc¬ 
cess in the results of experiments therein detailed, together with 
the opinions of well known men of science, all of which con¬ 
firm the expectations previously entertained of the process. 

Some of the more important of the advantages attending the 
use of Prof. Wurtz’s process of amalgamation may be briefly 
alluded to. 

1st, A very largely increased yield of gold is assured, in 
some instances bringing it up to the entire quantity of the 
precious metal contained in an ore. This fact will be recognized 
by every practical gold miner as one of immense importance; 
and when it shall have been fully brought to the notice of those 
engaged in working gold mines, it must lead to the use of the 
process wherever the precious metals are found. 

2d, Loss of quicksilver by “flouring” or granulation is en¬ 
tirely prevented by the use of this process. The addition of 
sodium amalgam to floured quicksilver will restore it instantly 
to its liquid condition. This assertion has been verified by 
every operation with the process. 

3d, The adoption of this process does not involve any change 
in machinery or apparatus. The improvement being purely 
chemical, the same mechanical appliances may be used as when 
ordinary quicksilver is employed. 

4th, The operation of amalgamation by Prof. Wurtz’s process 
mav be completed in less than one half the time ordinarilv em- 
ployed in running the pans. The use of this process therefore, 
by reducing the time to less than one half, practical^ more 
than doubles the capacity of the amalgamating machinery. 

The largely increased yield of gold which is assured by the 
employment of sodium amalgam, without the other advantages 
attending its use, would alone suffice to prove the great value of 
the process. In the experiments which have been conducted’ 
with a view to ascertain this fact, on a large as well as on a 
small scale, the results have been extraordinary, the increased 
yield ranging (when the trials have been performed with ordi¬ 
nary care) from thirty to nearly one hundred per cent. The 
remarkable affinity for gold imparted to quicksilver by sodium 
amalgam may be readily shown by a small experiment in a 
watch glass. On pouring a few drops of quicksilver into the 
glass, and bringing into contact with it a fine pellet of native 
gold, it will be found that in a majority of instances there will 
be an absolute repulsion existing between the two metals, and 
that the gold, except where it may have been cut or scratched, 
will not be even enfilmed. If now a small fragment of sodium 
amalgam be added to the quicksilver, the gold will be instantly 
coated and in a few seconds will be completely penetrated by 
the mercury. 


7 


The same wonderful power of the sodium amalgam may be 
shown by a simple experiment upon copper plates. If a piece 
of sheet copper be placed in contact with ordinary quicksilver, 
even if it be rubbed with the latter metal, no enfilming or union 
will take place, but if a minute quantity of sodium amalgam be 
dissolved in the quicksilver, the copper will be instantly coated 
at every point of contact. 

The peculiar action of sodium amalgam as shown in the 
small experiments above mentioned, is even far more efficacious 
when used on the large scale, in amalgamating machinery 
operated as is usual in gold and silver mills. This has been 
especially proved in the experiments conducted under the super¬ 
vision of Prof. Silliman, as alluded to in his paper read before 
the National Academy of Sciences at the meeting held in Wash¬ 
ington in January last. An abstract of this paper will be found 
annexed hereto. In this experiment the quantity of the ore 
operated upon was upwards of a quarter of a ton, while the 
amount of gold extracted by the use of the sodium amalgam 
was very nearly equal to the whole quantity existing in the ore 
as revealed by the fire assay. 

In like manner the experiments made under the supervision 
of Dr. John Torrey, United States Assayer, upon ore from the 
celebrated “ Moss Lode ” of Arizona, show a very largely in¬ 
creased yield of gold by the use of Prof. Wurtz’s process. In 
these experiments a small barrel amalgamator was employed, 
the ore being tried in two separate equal quantities, one with 
ordinary quicksilver, and the other with quicksilver in which a 
small quantity of magnetic amalgam had been dissolved. In 
the first experiment (with ordinary quicksilver) the amount of 
gold obtained was 45 per cent, of the quantity contained in the 
ore; while in the second experiment (with sodium amalgam) 78 
per cent, of the content of gold was obtained, being an increased 
yield of 73 per cent. 

It is well known that in the ordinary method of amalgamat¬ 
ing gold and silver ores, whether in stamp battery or in arrastras 
or pans, a large loss of quicksilver occurs, by reason of the 
“flouring” or granulation of this metal, whereby it is cut up into 
fine particles which are lost in the tailings. These fine globules 
of mercury become coated with impurities and so lose their 
power of cohesion, and while in this condition it is almost im¬ 
possible for them to be brought together again into one mass. 
The loss of quicksilver by “flouring,” in the state of Nevada 
alone, has been computed by those conversant with the business 
of mining, at one hundred tons per annum! And yet this loss, 
great as it is, is but a fraction of the total amount of money 
wasted by the granulation of quicksilver. The floured quick¬ 
silver is that portion which is richest in precious metals, and 


8 


this, as a matter of course, is lost along with the mercury. The 
same authorities, just alluded to, estimate the loss of precious 
metals in Nevada, resulting from their being retained in the 
floured quicksilver, at upwards of twenty millions of dollars per 
annum! Startling as this statement may appear it is undoubt¬ 
edly within the mark. In the operations which have been per¬ 
formed with Prof. Wurtz’s process no loss whatever of quicksilver 
has ensued. 

The rapidity with which floured quicksilver may be made to 
re-unite into one mass by the use of the sodium amalgam, may 
be shown in a very satisfactory manner by agitating a little mer¬ 
cury with solution of copperas in a test-tube. In a few moments 
the mercury will become converted into globules. If now a 
very small fragment of sodium amalgam be thrown in, the 
globules will almost instantly run together, and subsequent agi¬ 
tation will fail to flour the quicksilver again. 

The fact that no change in amalgamating machinery is ren¬ 
dered necessary by the use of Prof Wurtz’s process is one of 
great importance, especially in view of the immense amounts of 
money already invested by mining companies in machinery. 
This process has been successfully tried in stamp batteries, on 
copper plates, in iron pans and in wooden barrels, and in every 
instance with all the success claimed for it. No feature of the 
process will commend itself more gratefully to the miner than 
this; while at the same time the makers of various mechanical 
amalgamators will perceive that its use will not in the remotest 
degree conflict with their special forms of machines. Of course 
some particular modifications of mechanical appliances may be 
preferred to others, but this is not essential. 

The saving of time in amalgamating, and consequently of fuel, 
power and labor, is another valuable feature of the Company’s 
process, involving, as it does, many collateral advantages. In 
this way the capacity of the amalgamating machinery may be 
doubled, and if it be considered desirable to double the capacity 
of the whole works, the additional outlay would be necessary 
only for the crushing and grinding machinery. The economical 
advantages of this fact must be apparent to all. 

In this connection it may not be amiss to remark that the 
Company’s process is extremely simple, and that there are no 
laborious details which require to be taught to operators. Any 
millman of ordinary intelligence may, in a few hours time ac¬ 
quire a sufficient knowledge of the operations of the process to 
enable him to use it properly, and to accomplish all the import¬ 
ant results sure to accrue from its adoption. 

Did time and space permit, a large amount of evidence could 
be quoted to prove the imperative necessity of an improved 
amalgamation process. All gold and silver miners are fully 
aware of the deficiencies which are inherent in the ordinary 


9 


modes of using quicksilver, and it is believed that with one ac¬ 
cord they will hail the introduction of the Company’s process as 
the desideratum so long needed. During the period since the 
company became the assignee of Prof. Wurtz’s patents, a large 
number of miners from all the Pacific States and Territories, as 
well as from the southern gold-bearing States, and also from 
Central America, Mexico, and South America, have witnessed 
experiments in our laboratory; and these practical men have 
expressed but one opinion about the process: namely, that it 
could not help accomplishing all its inventor predicted during 
the years of labor and study he expended in developing it. 

The following certificates from eminent men of science will 
be read with interest: 

From Dr. John Torrey, United States Assayer. 

Professor H. WmtTZ, 

Dear Sir ,—I have made experiments relating to your new 
process of working gold and silver ores, and have satisfied my¬ 
self as to the following points: 

1. Gold and silver in the native state usually resist quicksilver 
powerfully. 

2. Addition of an excessively minute quantity of sodium as 
proposed by you gives the quicksilver a powerful attraction for 
such gold and silver. 

3. Quicksilver thus prepared has its cohesion for its own sub¬ 
stance exalted in an important degree, so that it resists granula¬ 
tion or flouring, and when floured the globules unite more readily 
again. Experiments made upon one of the worst ores, arsenical 
pyrites , have shown me this, as well that such prepared quick¬ 
silver has the power of removing gold from arsenical pyrites, 
even when dry. 

4. Such quicksilver enfilms iron without penetrating or cor¬ 
roding it; and this property promises to be useful in operations 
upon gold ores. 

5. Your plans are applicable to all ores of gold and silver; to 
all methods of amalgamation, and to all machines for the pur¬ 
pose. 

6. Your methods should save much fine gold which ordinarily 
escapes amalgamation, and shorten the time necessary for the 
manipulation of the ores with the quicksilver, and conduce to 
the saving of the amalgam. 

7. Your prepared quicksilver, when used in a sluice, should 
collect those particles of gold which are so fine as to be swept 
away by the water over the surface of ordinary quicksilver. 

(Signed) John Torrey, U. S. Assayer. 

New York, February 23, 1865. 

2 


10 


Letter from Mr. Carl Schultz, of the United States Assay Office . 

U. S. Assay Office, March 22d, 1865. 

My Dear Sir ,•—I have investigated with great interest the new 
and surprising series of phenomena which arise out of your new 
methods of operating upon gold and silver ores, and give you 
at your request the following statement of facts and results. 

1. Contrary to general belief, these metals are not readily at¬ 
tacked, when in their native state (even when bright and clean), 
by quicksilver applied to their surfaces: most native gold, on 
the contrary (as you have observed), showing a real repulsion 
for the fluid metal. Hence the necessity for the mechanical 
means usually employed for overcoming this repulsion and pro¬ 
ducing artificial polished or abraded surfaces which can take up 
the quicksilver. 

2. Your very cheap, simple and practical methods of modify¬ 
ing the properties of ordinary quicksilver, and of enhancing its 
affinities for metals, give us the means of neutralizing this re¬ 
pulsion and converting it into a sensible attraction (almost justi¬ 
fying the term “ magnetic”); and will enable us, I am convinced, 
to accomplish a more thorough saving of gold and silver from 
the ores with far less labor, time, and expense than heretofore. 

3. Your methods, at the same time, accomplish the still more 
important object of enhancing the attraction of quicksilver for 
itself thus causing small globules (even enfilmed with foreign 
matter) when brought in contact, to coalesce instantly, and with 
considerable energy, into one. This property must be of great 
value in preventing the great loss both of amalgam and of quick¬ 
silver which arises from the “flouring” of ordinary quicksilver, 
when ground or agitated with the ores. 

I have found that fused globules of gold which do not repel 
ordinary quicksilver like native gold, but become slightly en¬ 
filmed at the points of contact, are forcibly sucked in and swal¬ 
lowed up in a moment by your quicksilver. I find fused silver 
to behave similarly, particularly if enfilmed, as when produced 
by granulating silver coin. 

I have also repeated your recently devised experiments dem¬ 
onstrating the prevention of flouring suggested by the observa¬ 
tions of Millon, on the powerful flouring action of saline solu¬ 
tions. Ordinary quicksilver is quickly converted by agitation 
with a weak solution of sulphate of iron, into a fine flour, the 
minute detached globules of which coalesce again with exceed¬ 
ing slowness. This accounts fully, as you have suggested, for 
the injurious flouring action of the sulphurets in the ores, sul¬ 
phates being formed by oxydation. Such a fine quicksilver is 
almost instantly collected into one homogeneous mass by a small 
addition of your modified quicksilver, and renewed agitation 
with the same solution no longer produces any flouring action. 


11 


No demonstration of the value of your invention in its applica¬ 
tion to ores more direct and conclusive than this, could be well 
devised. 

In conclusion, I strongly recommend to all interested in the 
extraction of gold and silver from their ores, the most thorough 
trial of your new processes, especially as no essential alterations 
will be required in the machinery or modes of operation now 
in use. Your most ob’d’t servant, 

(Signed) Carl Schultz, Assistant Assayer. 

Prof. Henry Wurtz. 

Extracts from a report made by Prof. B. Silliman to the Montpelier 

Gold Mining Association, on the Wheeler Gold Veins , Downieville, 

Sierra County, California, November, 1865 . 

* * * 

“I had no means of determining the quantity of quartz 
crushed, nor its average yield. It was asserted, however, that 
the quantity was about 1500 tons; if so, the average yield was 
about forty-six dollars per ton. If it proves, on renewed trial, 
to yield an average of thirty dollars per ton, it will produce 
splendid results. 

“The assay above given would seem to justify a higher aver¬ 
age, but it is almost impossible to avoid, in a hand sample, se¬ 
lecting specimens much above the general average. Improve - 
merits in amalgamation are likely , however , greatly to increase the 
value of all gold mines in California. Of this more will be said 
presently. Many mines, which by assay ought to return hand¬ 
some profits, owing to imperfect amalgamation have not proved 
profitable. 

* * * 

“ The mill should be constructed to amalgamate in battery. 
It should also be provided with pretty fine screens (No. 6 or 
No. 7); and an ample apron of heavy copper plates amalgamated 
with Sodium Amalgam. 

“The most promising discovery yet made in improved amal¬ 
gamation is that of employing the Sodium Amalgam of Mercury, 
discovered by Henry Wurtz, Esq., of New York, and now com¬ 
ing to command attention. I have tried experiments in a small 
way with this amalgam, the results of which are wonderful. 
This is not the place to describe the process or its mode of man¬ 
ipulation ; suffice it to say, no particle of gold escapes amalga¬ 
mation, if it is brought, even for the briefest period, in contact 
with Sodium Quicksilver. An exceedingly minute proportion of 
the Sodium Amalgam suffices to give the “Magnetic Property” 
to quicksilver, enduing it with the power of seizing the gold 
with the same avidity that water is soaked up by a sponge. I 
shall prosecute this subject practically, and, long before the time 


you will be called on to use the amalgamation process, I shall 
be prepared to give advice on it to your mill-man. 

“I anticipate from the maturing of this discovery immense 
advantages to the business of gold amalgamation: indeed, it 
would not be surprising that in many mines the present product' 
should be doubled. Carefully prepared samples of tailings made 
by myself from some of the Grass Yalley mines showed the 
quartz tailings to be worth over thirty dollars the ton, a quantity 
as large as the average yield daily in that locality, and the same 
which we make the basis of estimates in case of this property.” 

A short time subsequent to the date of the report from which 
the above extracts were made, opportunities were presented to 
try the company’s process on a scale of considerable magnitude 
in a Freiberg pan. The operations were conducted by Prof. 
Silliman in person, who made it the subject of a paper read by 
him before the National Academy of Sciences at the meeting 
held in Washington in January last. The paper, considerably 
abridged, is herewith annexed as taken from the National Intel¬ 
ligencer of January 29th. 

On Sodium Amalgamation , with Special Reference to Saving the Pre¬ 
cious Metals , and especially Gold ’ by Professor B. Silliman. 

It' is well known to metallurgists that the amalgamation of 
gold is often attended with peculiar difficulties, and that in the 
best conducted operations on the large scale there is always a 
considerable, often a large loss, of the precious metal. Samples 
of waste, or “tailings,” collected by myself at various amalga¬ 
mation works in Grass Yalley, California, a place noted above 
most others for the great success which has attended amalgama¬ 
tion of gold, proved on assay to contain in the quartz waste 
over thirty dollars to the ton, and in the sulphids over fifty dol¬ 
lars to the ton—showing a loss nearly equal to the average 
amount saved in that district. One of the most cautious and 
experienced metallurgists of California, at one time connected 
with the Geological Commission of that State, informed me 
that by his own determinations the saving in a large number of 
cases was barely 30 per cent, of the gross contents of the ore, 
as shown by careful assays, both of the ore and the waste. 

The causes of this large loss are various, among which may 
be mentioned imperfect processes, insufficient comminution of 
the ore, and the difficulty of bringing the gold into contact with 
the mercury. In an ore containing one ounce of gold to the ton 
of quartz or waste, the ratio is as one to thirty-two thousand 
(1 to 32,000), or less than one-fourth of one grain in one pound 
of stuff. 

It is, however, well known to all who are conversant with 
gold amalgamation, that the mercury often appears perfectly in- 


13 


different to the gold even when brought in contact with it, fail¬ 
ing to amalgamate it. This indifference may be sometimes 
traced to a minute portion of grease which effectually checks 
amalgamation, but it is quite as often due to some other and less 
obvious cause, baffling often the skill of the best amalgamators 
and resulting in a ruinous loss of the precious metal. 

Numerous inventions have been devised to save this loss, and 
avoid the causes which involve it, but until lately with very in¬ 
different success. One of the most promising, viz., the use of 
mercurial vapor, has proved itself on trial in the large way a 
failure, and the problem has remained, in a great measure, un¬ 
solved. 

Early in 1864 Prof. Henry Wurtz communicated to me in 
conversation, his conviction, as the result of preliminary experi¬ 
ments, that the use of a minute portion of the metal Sodium 
would impart to mercury the power of amalgamating with gold 
readily under any of the adverse conditions which had thus far 
proved so serious a drawback to the practice of this art. Leav¬ 
ing soon afterwards for California, I have had no opportunity, 
until within a few months past, of acquainting myself with Mr. 
Wurtz’s plans. Meantime he has secured his invention by let¬ 
ters patent. * * * 

EXPERIMENTS UPON GOLD ORES. 

Having at my disposal a considerable quantity of California 
gold quartz from a mine in Calaveras county, I proposed to Mr. 
Wurtz to subject these ores to his method of amalgamation, 
under conditions subject to control, both as expressing the actual 
value of the material experimented on, as well as giving the 
value of the results and the loss in the process. 

FIRST SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS. 

One lot of very poor ores, being quartz, showing no gold, but 
some iron pyrites and much ochrey matter, being crushed and 
ground, gave of fine dry powder 525 pounds. 

Several assays of this lot, made both at the U. S. Assay Office 
by Dr. Torrey, and also by Dr. Buck, a private assayer of ex¬ 
cellent repute, gave an average value to the ore, on the ton of 
2,000 pounds— 

Gold,.$13.56 

Silver,.1.33 

$14.89 

The whole of this lot of 525 lbs., or rather more than a quar¬ 
ter of a ton of pulverized ore, was then treated in a Freiberg 
amalgamating pan, provided with 16 mullers and driven by 
steam power. In this apparatus the mass was first made into a 
thin paste with water, and then treated for one hour with 



14 


twenty pounds of mercury, to which four ounces of Mr. W.’s No. 2 
sodium amalgam was added in four successive doses, applied at 
about equal intervals of time during the process, the alloy being 
dissolved in a small part of the mercury. 

On cleaning up the results of the experiment, and obtaining 
as nearly as possible average samples of the waste, the entire 
amount of mercury used in the experiment was recovered with 
a loss of less than one 320th of the original quantity. On care¬ 
ful distillation (retorting) the button of bullion melted at the 
United States Assay Office gave 0'1925 of one ounce troy of a 
fineness of 827 thousandths and a value of $3,29.5, or, calculated 
upon the ton of 2,000 lbs., giving a value per ton of $14,03 of 
precious metal. 

The tailings from this experiment yielded to assay a mere 
trace of gold too small to be weighed. 

The concentrated sulphids washed from the tailings, and rep¬ 
resenting a very small fraction of the whole original mass, gave 
as the result of two assays 

$1,183.73 

1,140.63 

Average, - - 1,162.18 per ton of 2,000 lbs. 

On calculating the ratio of these concentrated tailings to the 
whole mass it was found to be as 1 to 1700, giving about 70 
cents as the bullion value additional to the bullion obtained by 
amalgamation, giving a total of $14.73, and differing by only 16 
cents from the entire chemical contents as shown by the average 
of several assays. 

In other words, the sodium amalgamation had in this experi¬ 
ment saved, practically speaking, all the gold in an ore contain¬ 
ing less than $15 to the ton. 

SECOND SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS. 

Another lot of ores from the same mine, known to be much 
richer than the first, was in like manner ground to a fine powder, 
and very carefully sampled in a manner to secure a fair average! 

Repeated assays, both at the United States Assay Office and 
at the private office of Partz & Buck, fixed the value of this 
sample of about 80 pounds of powdered ore at $320 per ton, 
the range of difference being quite moderate. The assays gave 
respectively $293.63, $332.78, $296.37, $368.22, $306.20, $320.36, 
the average result of these being closely $320 per ton of 2,000 
lbs. of ore. 

In treating this sample a different mode of experimenting was 
adopted. 

A small rotating cask, capable of treating 10 or 15 pounds of 
ore, was arranged in imitation of the usual Freiberg Barrel. In 



15 


operating on small quantities of ore (10 or 15 pounds, for ex¬ 
ample,) the ratio of loss and error is much higher than in treat¬ 
ing larger quantities, as in the great processes of the arts. We 
did not expect, therefore, to obtain in this series of experiments 
results as closely approximating the assay as in the first experi¬ 
ment, which was made upon a scale equal to that of the quartz 
mill. 

EXPERIMENTS. 

1. To make a comparative experiment, showing the relative 
saving power of common quicksilver and of the sodium amal¬ 
gam, 5 lbs. of the ore were treated for thirty minutes with 2 lbs. 
of common mercury, which gave per ton of 2,000 lbs. 

$118.80 or 37.12 per cent of the average. 

The tailings of this 
experiment panned 
by hand with 1 oz. 
of magnetic mer¬ 
cury yielded an ad¬ 
ditional quantity. 67.20 or 21.00 11 “ “ 

$18(100 or 58.00 “ “ “ 

2. 10 lbs. of the ore were next treated in the same manner 
with 1 lb. of common mercury 30 minutes, and the tailings 
panned in like manner with 1 oz. of magnetic quicksilver, giv¬ 
ing in all per ton $182.60 or 57.1 per cent. 

3. 10 lbs. of the ore with 1 lb. of common quicksilver for 30 

minutes yielded $191.80 or 60 per cent. 

Tailings treated for 30 minutes with 1 lb. 

of magnetic quicksilver (i oz. No. 2 

amalgam) gave in addition, 63.60 or 20 “ 

Total,.$255.40 or 80 “ 

No appreciable loss of mercury. 

4. 10 lbs. of the ore treated for 30 minutes with 1 lb. of mag¬ 
netic quicksilver, (± oz. of No. 2 amalgam,) and the tailings, as 
in No. 2, treated in a pan with 1 oz. magnetic quicksilver, 
yielded in all $266.40 or 83.3 per cent. 

No appreciable loss of mercury. 

These experiments are still in progress, but the results show 
that with unaided mercury the gold saved is less than 60 per 
cent, of the whole quantity of gold known to be present. In 
one experiment less than 40 per cent, was saved, while by the 
aid of the amalgam of sodium the saving is increased to 80 
or 83.3 per cent., or an increase of more than 20 per cent., 
leading to the reasonable expectation that in the large way at 
least 80 per cent, of the gold present in a given case may be 
saved, and in many cases, where the gold is coarse and free, that 
even better results than this may be attained. The first experi- 






16 


ment detailed in which a different amalgamating apparatus was 
used gave results surprisingly close. I do not think the barrel 
as good a form of apparatus for this description of amalgama¬ 
tion as some one of the numerous forms of pan now in use. It 
was employed in these experiments simply because it was a con¬ 
venient means of treating small quantities of ore in making 
comparative experiments. 

Experiments in California, under my direction, have been set 
on foot upon a scale of magnitude adequate to test the value of 
this discovery in the metallurgy of gold in a satisfactory man¬ 
ner, the results of which may now be looked for at no distant day. 

The action of the sodium in this case appears to be in a man¬ 
ner electrical, by placing the mercury in a highly electro-posi¬ 
tive condition toward the electro-negative gold, seeming to give 
some reason for the term magnetic amalgam , adopted by Mr. 
Wurtz as the trade-mark of the alloy. The quantity of sodium 
is entirely too small to allow the supposition that it acts by its 
chemical affinities. 

The amalgam of gold or silver is very liable, as every mill- 
man knows to his loss, to granulate and disappear from the 
plates of the battery, or from the rifles, after it has once been 
formed. If this granulation takes place it is almost impossible, 
by the existing modes of amalgamation, to recover the minute 
particles which float off with the currents of water and are lost. 
The action of the sodium in recovering mercury which has 
passed into this condition is, perhaps, its most remarkable 
property. * 

January 24, 1866. 


* * 


Following the reading of this paper an interesting discussion 
was had on the subject, in which Prof. Henry, Dr. Gibbs, Mr. 
Hilgard, and others took part. The opinion was expressed that 
it was “one of the most practical and most interesting papers 
which had ever been brought before the Academy.” 

Gold and Silver Amalgamation . 

At the present meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, 
the eminent chemist, Professor Silliman, read a paper on a new 
method of amalgamation of gold and silver ores, which was 
listened to with great attention by the distinguished members 
present. We are permitted to present this paper in detail as a 
matter of general interest. The reader will find it on our first 
page this morning. Prof. Silliman stated that in the March 
number of the American Journal of Science, a more detailed 
statement of Prof. Wurtz’s invention would appear. 

The National Academy of Sciences, because of its national 
character as the exponent of the science of the country, has 



17 


been selected as the medium for promulgating for the first time, 
on the part of the inventor, this interesting matter, which it is 
believed will be found to possess a national importance. 

National Intelligencer. 

These experiments were afterwards continued in another form 
by Prof. Silliman, in order to ascertain whether the assays of 
the tailings after amalgamation would give results concurrent 
with the above. The following report of Dr. Torrey bears 
upon this. The proportion of gold extracted is of course found 
by subtracting ,§(37.83 from §320, giving §252 as the yield in 
this case, or about 80 per cent, as before. This furnishes con¬ 
firmatory evidence of the strongest character. 

New York, January 28, 1866. 

Prof. B. Silliman, 

Dear Sir ,—We send you the results of our assay of the “tail¬ 
ings ” which you transmitted to us. They were marked, 

“ Tailings from ore of Auction and Texas Lode, assaying gold 
$320, after amalgamation with sodium quicksilver, 

Gold, per ton,.$67.83 

Silver,. 1.45 

Yours respectfully, John Torrey & Son. 

The experiments on a practical scale in California alluded to 
by Prof. Silliman were conducted at the Eureka Mills, Grass 
Yalley, under the supervision of Dr. Fisher. Regarding the 
success attending these working trials, Prof. Silliman writes to 
Prof. Wurtz, as follows: 

“New Haven, Feb. 27, 1866. 

“Prof. Henry Wurtz, 

“ Dear Sir ,—I have received advices under date of Jan. 17 
and 27, 1866, from Dr. Fisher in Grass Yalley, California, the 
gentleman I requested to put to the test your new methods of 
amalgamating gold ores with quicksilver containing sodium, and 
find therein the following passages bearing upon your inventions: 

Under date of Jan. 17:—‘Upon applying No. 1 amalgam di¬ 
rectly to the clean copper plates, they amalgamate easily and re¬ 
tain their coating better than when coated in the ordinary man¬ 
ner. There were cleaned up after six days run, from the plates 
coated with magnetic quicksilver, 15 dwts. of amalgam, while 
the five plates coated in the usual manner cleaned up but 13-J- 
dwts. The plates were of the same size, had never been used 
before, and were coated at the same time. They were placed 
side by side in two sluices, each fed from the same battery, and 
in all respects the conditions were made as nearly alike as possible. 

‘As I advised you in my last, the ‘ Eureka Mill,’ or any 
other in which the ‘blanket process’ is employed, cannot give 

o 

•> 




18 


the sodium amalgam a fair test so far as its value in saving gold 
on an incline is concerned; for 90 per cent, of the total gold 
saved is detained by the blankets.’ * * 

‘Parties have been experimenting in Nevada for sometime 
past with sodium. At the Gould & Curry mill, they tried sodium 
amalgam in the Hepburn pan (1000 lbs. charges of ore) with 
very satisfactory results. After running six hours at a tempera¬ 
ture of 150°, the contents of the pan were run off, and the yield 
of silver was ten per cent, greater than when operating as usual! 
Mr. Attwood tells me that his son, amalgamator at the Ophir 
mill in Virginia City, has obtained still better results with the 
Freiberg barrel.’” * * 

“Under date of Jan. 27, 1866:—‘ * * It seems to me that 
the great value of sodium will prove to be in pans and barrels 
and on copper plates. Last week , in my experiments at Eureka, 
the gold amalgam from the plates coated with sodium amalgam 
iveighed seventy per cent more than that from plates coated in the 
usual way! /’ * * Yours truly, 

(Signed) B. Silliman.” 

Experiments on ore from the l ' Moss Lodef Arizona. 

United States Assay Office, New York, Feb. 28th, 1866. 

Prof. Henry Wurtz, 

Dear Sir ,—We herewith send you the results of our experi¬ 
ments on the comparative value of the new method of amalgama¬ 
tion invented by you, and the old method with ordinary mercury. 

Having in our possession a quantity of very rich gold quartz 
from the Moss Lode , Arizona, we had it crushed, and the larger 
lumps and grains of gold separated mechanically. The residue 
gave us on assay : 

Gold per ton (2000 lbs.), - - $1072.00 

Silver,. 80.00 

Total,.$T102J)0 

First experiment. —Eight lbs. of the residue was treated in a 
small barrel amalgamator with 16 oz. common quicksilver for 
thirty minutes; then panned carefully by hand, 1 oz. of quick¬ 
silver being added during the panning to collect together the 
pasty amalgam. Sixty minutes was occupied in the panning. 
The recovered quicksilver, including of course the bullion, 
weighed 16 oz. 891^-grains. The fused bullion obtained in this 
experiment weighed 61 T \ grains, and had a fineness of 

Gold,. 706-5 

Silver,.291*0 

Base metals, ..... 2 5 


10000 




19 


This corresponds to a yield of fine gold per ton of $470, or 
44*87 per cent of the fire assay. 

The loss of quicksilver in this experiment was J oz. (105 
grains, to be exact) =1*47 p. c. of the whole amount used. 

Second experiment .—Eight lbs. of the residue was treated in 
the same way, for the same time, with 16J oz. of quicksilver 
containing sodium; then panned by hand for forty minutes, 1 oz. 
of the same quicksilver being added during the panning. The 
amount of your No. 2 magnetic amalgam used was J oz. The 
recovered quicksilver (with the bullion) weighed 17-J- oz. The 
fused bullion obtained weighed 107 r \ grains, and its assay gave 

Gold,. 705*0 

Silver,.146*0 

Base metals,.149*0 

TlOOCK) 

This corresponds to a yield of $817.50 per ton , or 78 per cent, of 
the fire assay. There was no loss of quicksilver in this experiment. 

Third experiment. —The tailings from the first experiment were 
collected as well as possible, and operated on again with “ mag¬ 
netic quicksilver,” just as in the second experiment. Thirty 
minutes was occupied in panning. The result was (without ap¬ 
preciable loss of quicksilver), 19 grains of bullion, assaying 

Gold,.716*2 

Silver,. 283*8 

loOTO 

Corresponding to fine gold per ton $134, or 14 per cent, of the 
fire assay. 

These results and not a few others of a similar kind, show 
conclusively the efficacy of your new mode of amalgamation, 
and its great superiority over the usual method in which ordi¬ 
nary quicksilver is used. 

Yours respectfully, 

John Torrey & Son. 

I witnessed the experiments recounted above, and take pleas¬ 
ure in adding my opinion that they fully demonstrated the su¬ 
periority of the sodium amalgamation process. 

(Signed) Carl Schultz, Assistant Assayer. 

U. S. Assay Office, New York, March 9, 1866. 

Results with Sodium Amalgam in England and California . 

J. Mosheimer writes the following to the San Francisco (Cali¬ 
fornia) Mining and Scientific Press: “I am continually receiv¬ 
ing letters from the interior, asking questions as to whether 




20 


sodium is a benefit to amalgamation or not. My answers are 
always that it is. It is not my habit to ridicule people for giv¬ 
ing their experiments to the public through the press, no matter 
how insignificant they are; but I suppose every one knows that 
in so important a question as the use of sodium in amalgamating 
gold and silver, we cannot take, as a conclusion, an experiment 
made with a porcelain dish and iron nail. I let every one judge 
for himself, and only give you my experience, and that which 
has been directly communicated to me from others. T. A. 
Eeadwin wrote to me, about eight months ago, that he is mak¬ 
ing experiments in North Wales, England, with sodium amal¬ 
gam. He informs me that he uses small iron pans and my 
amalgamators; an equal number of pans being worked with 
and without sodium. The result has been that at least 30 per 
cent, more gold was produced with sodium than without its use. 
He has promised to give me further results of his experiments 
as they transpire, which in due time, Messrs. Editors, I will 
transmit to you. 

“ About five months ago I received several lots of ore to 
work; and I determined to give sodium a fair test. I worked 
the same ore, side by side, with the same machinery, and the 
results were as follows: First lot of 500 lbs., each pan with 
sodium, yielded 85 per cent, of the assay, without sodium the 
yield was only 55 per cent. Second lot, different ore, with so¬ 
dium, 80 per cent.; without sodium, 60. Third lot, different 
ore, with sodium, 78 per cent.; without sodium, 65. I made 
many more trials, and found that I got from 5 to 25 per cent 
more by using sodium than I could obtain without its aid. I 
noticed a very great difference, however, in the different kinds 
of ores which I worked. For certain classes of ores I believe 
sodium to be of great benefit; less for others. A fair trial, on a 
larger scale, would soon settle the question; and I hope some 
of your correspondents will give the sodium a fair test. 

J. Mosheimer.” 

Letter from Prof. Charles A. Seely. 

Office and Laboratory, 246 Canal st. New York, March 20th, 1866. 

Prof. Henry Wurtz, 

Dear Sir ,—I have faithfully used the sodium amalgam fur¬ 
nished by you, in demonstrating its remarkable properties. My 
experiments fully confirm the statements you have made in the 
March number of Silliman’s Journal. 

I have no doubt that sodium amalgam will soon come into 
general use in the amalgamation of the precious metals, and 
that it will have a notable effect in increasing the profits of our 
gold and silver mining companies. Very respectfully yours, 

(Signed) Charles A. Seely. 



IN A LETTER FROM 


HENRY WURTZ TO PROFESSOR B. SILLIMAN. 

* • 



[From the American Journal op Science and Arts, Yol. XLI, Mae., I860.] 


NEW HAVEN: 

PRINTED BY E. HAYES, 426 CHAPEL S T> 

1866 . 












ON SODIUM AMALGAMATION. 


In the opinion of yourself and others upon whose judgment 
I rely, the time has arrived for the promulgation of the discov¬ 
eries made by me, now many years since, of certain new proper¬ 
ties of the alkali-metals, rendering them of value in the amalga¬ 
mation of ores of the precious metals. 

You are aware that, pending the repeated investigations 
which I have conducted upon this important subject, I have 
made communications of rny results, both oral and written, from 
time to time to many persons, yourself among the number; but 
that until the latter part of the year 1864, no final step was 
taken to place these discoveries before the public in a tangible 
form. On the 27th of December, 1864, a patent of the U. S. 
Government was granted to me for specified modes of applying 
the said discoveries; the specification having been at my request 
retained on file in the Patent Office for six months (as the new 
patent law permits); so that the expiration of the term of this 
patent did not commence until the 27th of June, 1865. 

It appears, however, that my frequent communications had 
led to wide discussion of the remarkable phenomena involved, 
phenomena which I seldom hesitated to exhibit, even to the 
most casual acquaintances, taking only the precaution of silence 
as to the agent employed (the sodium); and the inevitable con¬ 
sequence has been the occupation of other minds with the sub¬ 
ject, both here and abroad. In fact, since the issue of my 
patent, I am informed that several applications (necessarily 
fruitless) have been made at Washington by others for patents 
covering some or all of my uses of the alkali-metals; and an 
English patent has been procured in the name of the eminent 
chemist Wm. Crookes, dated Aug. 12, 1865 (about eight months 
subsequent to the filing of my specification at Washington); 
of the specification of which I have procured a copy, and find 
it to present a remarkable similarity to my own. Moreover, 
I frequently find allusions and statements relating to this sub¬ 
ject, generally more or less imperfect and obscure, in the public 
prints throughout the world. 

It has clearly, therefore, become incumbent upon me—if only 
as a matter of justice to the mining community and others in¬ 
terested— to furnish authentic information as to what has 



I 


\ 


4 11. Wurtz on Sodium Amalgamation. 

actually been done, and wliat it is proposed to do. I have, 
therefore, prepared an abstract of my specification, embodying 
in a condensed form such portions of its substance as appear of 
present importance to miners and metallurgists. 

Other portions of the subject-matter of the specification will 
form a sufficiently voluminous, and I hope interesting, topic of 
a future communication ; as, for instance, my new modes of 
preparing amalgams of the alkali-metals in large masses with 
' any desired rapidity, safety and economy ; and which you, with 
other chemical scientists who have witnessed its operation, deem 
important in a purely scientific view; as involving novel phe¬ 
nomena, and illustrating molecular laws obscurely seen at 
present. 

With a few explanatory observations, which seem needed, I 
shall conclude. I have found it necessang for practical pur¬ 
poses, to prepare three different grades of the sodium amalgams, 
differing from each other in their proportions of sodium about 
as the numbers 1, 2 and 3 ; and which I designate accordingly. 

A few lines, also, regarding the term “magnetic amalgams,’’ 
which not a few will deem fantastic, and as suggesting un¬ 
authorized analogies. I hope to show, however, at some other 
time, that in applying the term I have followed the dictates of 
reason, and even the direct path of the modern leaders in cos- 
mical dynamics, the apostles of the doctrine of correlation of 
physical forces; and that the analogical element which I find is 
that between attractive and repulsive antagonistic force which 
exerts a chemical , or rather an elementary discrimination between 
bodies at insensible distances, and the antagonistic force of mag¬ 
netic attraction and repulsion, which is so eminent an example 
of a similar elementary discrimination, though at sensible dis¬ 
tances also. No one (to offer an illustration nearly, though not 
quite perfect) doubts the intimate relation between radiated and 
eonvected heat, although the one propagates itself throughout 
the universe of space, whilst the other is susceptible only of dif¬ 
fusion throughout insensible distances, from molecule to molecule. 

More of this, however, hereafter. The term, from its conven¬ 
ience alone, will doubtless come into extensive use, as a techni¬ 
cal term, among those who are most concerned in the utiliza¬ 
tion of the magnetic amalgams. 

39 Nassau St., New York, January 15, 1866. 

Specification. 

My invention consists: In imparting to quicksilver * a 
greatly enhanced adhesion, attraction, or affinity for other metals 
and for its own substance; by adding to it a minute quantity 
of one of the highly electro-positive metals * sodium, 
potassium * etc. 


5 


H. Wurtz on Sodium Amalgamation. 

My invention ' x * is applicable: 

1st. In all arts and operations in which amalgamation by 
quicksilver can be made available to separate or extract gold, 
silver or other precious metals from their ores. 

. * 

3d. In all operations in which amalgamation by quicksilver, 
in conjunction with reducing metals, such as iron or zinc, can 
be made available in recovering metals from their soluble or in¬ 
soluble saline compounds; such as silver from its sulphate, 
chlorid or hyposulphite; lead from its sulphate or chlorid ; gold 
from its chlorid or other solution. 

* * 

8th. In the mercurization of metallic surfaces in general; for 
instance, in the amalgamation of the surfaces of zinc in voltaic 
batteries; of the surfaces of copper plates, pans, etc., used in 
the saving of gold from its ores; * * 

9th. In the more convenient transportation of quicksilver, by 
the reduction thereof into solid forms. 

-X- * 

I shall now proceed to the description of those special and 
peculiar qualities of these amalgams of the alkali-metals which 
I have discovered, and which have led to my new uses of them 
in the chemical and metallurgic arts. 

A quantity of one of the magnetic amalgams, dissolved in 
one hundred times its weight or more of quicksilver, communi¬ 
cates to the whole a greatly enhanced power ol adhering to 
metals; and particularly to those which, like gold and silver, 
lie toward the negative end of the electro-chemical scale. This 
power of adhesion, in the case of these two metals, is so great, 
that the resistance which I have found their surfaces, when in 
the native state, usually oppose to amalgamation (a resistance 
which is much greater and more general than has been hitherto 
recognized, and which is due to causes as yet undiscovered, or 
at least uninvestigated) is instantly overcome; whether their 
particles be coarse, fine, or even impalpable. Even an artificial 
coating of oil or grease (which is such an enemy to amalgama¬ 
tion that the smoke of the miners’ lamps is pronounced highly 
detrimental in gold and silver mines) forms no obstacle to im¬ 
mediate amalgamation by this magnetic quicksilver. The atoms 
of the quicksilver are, as it would seem, put into a polaric con¬ 
dition by a minute addition of one of those metals which range 
themselves toward the electro-positive end of the scale; so that 
its affinity for the more electro-negative metals is so greatly ex¬ 
alted that it seizes upon, and is absorbed by, their surfaces in¬ 
stantaneously ; just as water is absorbed by a lump of sugar or 
other porous substance soluble in it. 


6 


II. TVurtz on Sodium Amalgamation. 


Such quicksilver (unlike ordinar} 1, quicksilver) even adheres 
strongly to surfaces of iron, steel, platinum, aluminum and an¬ 
timony; an adhesion which, however, as I have discovered, in 
the case of these five metals is not of the nature of a true amal¬ 
gamation, there being no penetration whatever into the sub¬ 
stance of the metal; so that the superficially adherent magnetic 
quicksilver may be readily wiped off clean, just as water may 
be from glass. The only metal I have as yet found, which can¬ 
not be enfilmed by the use of the magnetic amalgam, is mag¬ 
nesium. 

I shall now specify the details of my various new and useful 
applications of the alkali-metals : 

I. Applications of the magnetic amalgams to working the ores of the 

precious metals. 

My improvement in methods of amalgamating gold and silver 
ores consists in adding from time to time to the quicksilver used 
in amalgamation, about one-hundredth part, or less, of its weight 
of one of the magnetic amalgams. The frequency with which 
the amalgam is to be added cannot be exactly specified, as it 
will be found to depend more or less on a multitude of circum¬ 
stances; such, for instance, as the temperature, the purity of the 
water and the quantity of water used, the ratio borne by the 
surface of the quicksilver to its mass, the amount and mode of 
agitation of the quicksilver, the nature of the process and of the 
apparatus used, the character of the ore, the strength of the 
amalgam, etc., etc.; so that this important point can only be de¬ 
termined by experience in each case. Some general directions 
may, however, be derived from the experiments which have 
been made. It has been found that very much less sodium is 
requisite in those cases in which much water is emploved, and 
that water frequently renewed; for instance, in the “riffles” of a 
sluice, and in all forms of amalgamators through which a con¬ 
tinual current of fresh water is kept running; mercurial solu¬ 
tions of sodium, as I have discovered, being little affected by 
water which is free from acid., alkaline, or saline impurities. In 
those cases, however, in which little water is employed, and es¬ 
pecially when the ore and quicksilver are ground up together 
into a “slum” or slime, this water soon becomes alkaline, and 
an oxydation of the sodium sets in, necessitating its frequent 
renewal. In such cases, therefore, the following manipulation 
is recommended : The whole amount of quicksilver to be used 
for working up a batch of slime, say 50 pounds, is magnetized 
by dissolving in it one per cent of amalgam No. 2; or better, 
two per cent of the soft amalgam No. 1, which dissolves more 
readily; half of the whole, or 25 pounds, is then thrown into 


H. Wurtz on Sodium Amalgamation. 7 

the mill with the ore at first, and, as the incorporation proceeds, 
certain fractions of the other half are gradually added, at inter¬ 
vals of time varying according to circumstances, until the whole 
has been added. If, as is usual, the quicksilver is a portion 
which has been separated from the slime of a previous operation, 
it will usually retain some sodium, and therefore will require 
fresh amalgam in proportionately smaller quantity. 

In sluicing operations the soft amalgam No. 1 is most suit¬ 
able, on account of its ready solubility in mercury; and in these 
cases it is practicable to test the quicksilver in the “riffles” and 
ascertain when the magnetic quality requires restoration, by 
throwing in a few grains of gold-dust. Similar tests are easily 
applied to slimes, and in amalgamating methods generally, a slip 
of tarnished sheet copper being a very suitable agent for such 
testings. 

It may be remarked in passing, that the amalgam No. 1 is at 
any time easily prepared from No. 2, by melting it in an iron 
ladle with about its own weight of quicksilver, or from No. 3, 
by melting with twice its weight; considerable time, however, 
being requisite, in the case of No. 3, to produce the additional 
combination. In copper-plate amalgamation, that is, in those 
cases in which auriferous materials are brought into contact with 
amalgamated metallic surfaces, it is better to substitute altogether 
for quicksilver itself (both in the first coating of the metallic 
surfaces, and in any subsequent additions of quicksilver made) 
the pasty amalgam No. 1. In these modes of amalgamation 
great economy in wear and tear of apparatus, as well as in 
first cost, is effected by using, in connection with the magnetic 
amalgam, plates or surfaces of iron instead of copper. The 
power of coating or enfilming iron renders the amalgams in fact 
peculiarly valuable in every form of arrastra, drag-mill, or other 
apparatus for amalgamation which has internal surfaces of iron, 
these surfaces becoming coated over with quicksilver, and thus 
immenselv extending its chances of contact with those particles 
of gold which are so fine as to remain suspended in the water. 

Other important devices arise out of this power of enfilming 
iron surfaces, such as the keeping ol iron surfaces of stamps, 
and of other apparatus used in crushing ores continually coated 
with quicksilver. Quicksilver possessed of the magnetic quality 
may be kept dropping or trickling upon the surfaces of crushing- 
rollers ; or in those crushers in which iron balls are used, the 
surfaces of these balls may be kept enfilmed. _ In like manner 
as the adhesion of quicksilver to other metals is exalted by the 
alkali-metals, so, also, as I have discovered, is its cohesion with 
itself greatly increased. It is rendered more viscid, more diffi¬ 
cult to divide mechanically, and when thus divided runs 
together again instantly upon contact. Hence arise new results 


8 


II. w urtz on Sodium Amalgamation. 


of incalculable value. For instance, the so-called “flouring” or 
granulation of the quicksilver, which in the amalgamation of 
ores always occasions so great losses, both of the quicksilver 
itself and of its amalgams with the precious metals, is reduced 
to a minimum or altogether prevented. 

The recovery of floured quicksilver and amalgams from 
slimes and similar mixtures is also greatly facilitated and accel¬ 
erated thereby. For this purpose some strongly magnetized 
quicksilver is thrown into the separator. Such slimes may 
even be operated upon with advantage by the ordinary process 
of panning by hand; a little magnetic quicksilver being thrown 
into each pan and stirred about at first for a few moments with 
the hand, which will collect together and incorporate all the 
scattered globules of auriferous amalgam. In fact, in all pan¬ 
ning operations, even upon the pay-dirt of placer diggings, 
much labor, gold, and time may in this way be saved. 

It is necessary to specify an important precaution applicable 
in some cases in which magnetic amalgams are used, and par¬ 
ticularly in those cases in which the ore is ground or agitated 
with quicksilver in contact with metallic iron. This arises from 
the liability of the adhesion of some abraded particles of iron 
to the amalgam. The following plan is therefore recommended 
in these cases: The amalgam, after separation from the excess 
of quicksilver, and before retorting, is fused in an earthen dish 
or iron ladle (with addition of a little quicksilver, if necessary, 
to make it more fluid), and the iron, which will rise and form a 
scum on the surface, is skimmed off. The excess of quicksilver 
may then, after cooling, be again separated from the amalgam 
in the usual way. Any amalgam which may adhere to the 
iron-scum is readily detached therefrom by boiling in water to 
remove the sodium. This process depends on the simple fact 
that the adhesion to the iron totally disappears with the extrac¬ 
tion of the last traces of sodium from the quicksilver. In fact, 
it is possible to remove all the iron from the amalgam by 
boiling directly in water, without any previous fusion; more 
particularly if the water be made somewhat acid or alkaline. 
The presence of iron in a sample of amalgam is readily detected 
by the magnet, which instrument may be sometimes used to 
advantage also in separating intermixed iron from amalgam, 
after all sodium has been extracted from the latter. There are 
still other metals which will usually be found adherent to the 
amalgam when sodium has been used ; such as platinum and 
osmiridium. These, like iron, immediately detach themselves 
on the removal of the sodium by boiling the diluted amalgam 
in water. A mixture of platinum or osmiridium, or both, with 
iron, may of course be freed from the latter by the magnet. It 
will generally be found desirable, as in other cases where quick- 


] 


9 


H. Wurtz on Sodium Amalgamation. 

silver is used and ores containing arsenic or sulphur operated 
upon, to remove as much as practicable of the arsenic or sulphur 
by previous roasting or other chemical treatment. 

* * 

Hh —Applications to the recovery of metals from their saline compounds. 

In the common operation of reducing silver to an amalgam 
from its native or artificial chlorid, or from its sulphate, by the 
action of metallic iron or zinc in conjunction with quicksilver, 
immense advantage arises from the use of the magnetic amal¬ 
gams, especially in the reduction of the time occupied to a frac¬ 
tion of that heretofore required. This applies as well to ores in 
which the silver occurs naturally as chlorid, bromid or iodid, as 
to those in which the silver has been previously converted into 
chlorid, or sulphate, or both, by roasting with common salt or 
otherwise; and to chlorid which has been precipitated from so¬ 
lution. * * * 

When gold has been obtained in solution, either from ores or 
from other materials, by the action of chlorine, aqua-regia, cyanid 
of potassium, or any other solvent, also when silver has been 
obtained in solution, in hyposulphites or otherwise, the most 
rapid and thorough mode of saving these metals will be found 
to be their conversion into amalgams, by precipitation with me¬ 
tallic iron in contact with magnetic quicksilver, more especially 
when the solutions are dilute. # * * 

The greater rapidity and perfection of the precipitation, in 
these cases, are obviously due to the absolute contact at once es¬ 
tablished with the iron surfaces by the magnetic quicksilver, 
and the perfect and powerful voltaic circuits thus kept up con¬ 
stantly throughout the two metals and the solution. 

* * 

VIII .—Applications to the Mercurializing of Metallic Surfaces in general. 

In all cases in which it is an object to save time and labor in 
the coating of surfaces of other metals with quicksilver, * * * 
the magnetic amalgams come into play; * * * 

By virtue of the adhesion to iron and other non-amalgamable 
metals imparted by the magnetic amalgams, I am enabled to 
apply quicksilver, or fluid or pasty amalgams, to any metallic 
surface, with great rapidity and facicity, with a brush , after the 
fashion of a paint; the material of such brush being fine wire 
of iron, steel, aluminum, or platinum. Of these the material 
most generally suitable is the finest steel wire, tempered to about 
a spring-temper, or somewhat softer ; and the most generally 
useful form of such brushes, is that of a flat varnish or white¬ 
wash brush. 

Among the important uses of such brushes may be instanced: 

2 


10 H. Wurtz on Sodium Amalgamation. 

the amalgamation of copper (or iron) plates used in saving gold 
from ores; * * *. Another valuable use is the recovery ot 
quicksilver which has been spilled or scattered in the form of 
globules; such a flat brush, saturated with magnetic quicksilver, 
instantly collecting, incorporating, and sucking up the scattered 
globules, even from the most irregular surface. 

The same principle of adhesion of magnetic amalgams to a 
brush of steel wire, is applicable, in many obvious ways, to the 
separation of metals from ores, and of granulated or floured 
quicksilver from ores and slimes, etc. 

* * 

IX .—Applications to the Transportation of Quicksilver. 

The ordinary mode of packing and transporting quicksilver 
in bulk, is very expensive and troublesome ; and in its ordinary 
form its transfer from one vessel into another is accompanied by 
great liability to loss. It will therefore be found very conven¬ 
ient and useful to possess simple, cheap and practicable modes, 
such as those described above, of converting it into solid forms, 
susceptible of transportation in vessels of lighter and cheaper 
material than the ordinary wrought-iron bottles; such, for in¬ 
stance, as glass or earthen ware jars, wooden kegs, bags or bot¬ 
tles, or other envelops of caoutchouc or gutta-percha, etc., etc. 

This plan also enables quicksilver to be packed, stored, trans¬ 
ported and sold in convenient forms; such as bars, ingots, cyl¬ 
inders, blocks, cubes, spheres, or pellets, of definite sizes and 
weights, the convenience of which for many uses, and particu¬ 
larly for that of miners, is at once obvious. When the quicksil¬ 
ver is to be used in any of the arts above specified, it will then 
be already in a suitable condition, or will merely require admix¬ 
ture with some fluid quicksilver; and when to be used as pure 
quicksilver, the sodium may be removed by throwing the solid 
amalgam in fragments into hot water, preferably mixed with a 
little sulphuric or acetic acid. 

The modes of packing such ingots, for preservation and trans¬ 
portation, are already sufficiently set forth in a preceding para¬ 
graph. 

Claims .—The claims attached to this specification are twent} 7 - 
three in number ; and those only are here given which directly 
concern the miner and amalgamator. 

What I claim as my inventions are :— 

1st. The combination with quicksilver, when used for the ex¬ 
traction by amalgamation of any metal or metals from ores, 
slimes, and mixtures with other materials; of metallic sodium, 
or metallic potassium, or any other highly electro-positive metal 
equivalent in its action thereto; as above set forth. 


11 


H. Wurtz on Sodium Amalgamation. 

2d. In those amalgamators in which amalgamated plates of 
copper or other metal are used; the substitution therefor of plates 
or surfaces of iron, coated with quicksilver combined with sodi¬ 
um, or other highly electro-positive metal; as above set forth. 

3d. The coating of iron surfaces, between or under which 
ores or other materials are crushed, with quicksilver combined 
with sodium, or other highly electro-positive metal; as above 
set forth. 

4th. The prevention of the granulation or flouring of quick¬ 
silver, when used in any method of amalgamating ores or other 
materials; by addition thereto of sodium, or other highly electro¬ 
positive metal; as above set forth. 

5th. The separation of intermixed iron from double amalgams 
of gold and sodium, or of silver and sodium; by fusion with 
excess of quicksilver and skimming; as above set forth. 

6th. The separation of intermixed iron, platinum, osmiridium, 
and other non-amalgamable metals, from amalgams containing 
sodium or its equivalent; by action thereupon of water or other 
oxydating liquid ; as above set forth. 

7th. The separation of intermixed iron from amalgams con¬ 
taining sodium or its equivalent, or from any metal or metals 
extracted from such amalgams; by magnets, either permanent 
or electro-magnetic; as above set forth. 

8th. The combination with quicksilver, when used in con¬ 
junction with iron or other reducing metals, for reducing to an 
amalgam, silver from its chlorid or other compound, or any 
other metal from any saline compound or solution; of sodium, 
or other highly electro-positive metal; as above set forth. 

* * 

12th. In all cases in which metallic surfaces, such as copper 
plates, the zincs of voltaic batteries, etc., are to be amalgamated; 
the use of quicksilver combined with sodium, or other highly 
electro-positive metal; as above set forth. 

13th. The more rapid and convenient application of quicksil¬ 
ver to surfaces with metallic brushes; by virtue of its previous 
combination with sodium, or other highly electro-positive metal; 
as above set forth. 

14th. The use of metallic brushes, enfilmed with an amalgam 
of sodium or its equivalent; for incorporating together particles 
of quicksilver, gold, silver, or any other metal, scattered through¬ 
out ores, slimes, or any other materials; as above set forth. 

15th. The more convenient transportation, handling and sub¬ 
division of quicksilver; by conversion into solid forms; in the 
manner herein substantially described. 


12 


H. Wurtz on Sodium Amalgamation. 


Editorial Note .—At the session of the National Academy of 
Sciences held in Washington in January last, Prof. Silliman read 
a paper upon the sodium amalgamation, detailing the results of 
a series of experiments conducted by him upon a 3cale of suf¬ 
ficient magnitude to test the value of this discovery upon gold 
quartz. In one experiment made on over 500 pounds of low 
grade ores, worth about $15 per ton, the sodium amalgam ex¬ 
tracted practically all the gold not existing in the sulphids. 
This experiment was conducted in a large-sized Freiberg amal¬ 
gamator and was continued through one hour, the sodium 
amalgam being added in four successive portions of one ounce 
each, dissolved in a portion of the 20 pounds of mercury em¬ 
ployed. The loss in mercury was about one ounce in this ex-. 
perirnent, the quantity of the sodium amalgam being 1'2 per 
cent of the total quantity of mercury in use. 

In a second series of experiments conducted on carefully pre¬ 
pared samples of richer ore, worth $320 per ton, treated in a 
revolving barrel, the saving by ordinary mercury was from 40 
to 60 per cent of the total quantity of gold present. With the 
aid of sodium amalgam 83*3 per cent were recovered. The 
results in the large way in actual practice would probably be 
more satisfactory than those last named. Prof. S. stated that 
experiments had also been set on foot in California to test this 
process on a large scale in the actual working of quartz mills. 
The results of these experiments will be noticed hereafter. 


9 







